Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: This is a favorite by minute work there you get
about it here, Get a mail bab Look a man
with a brand new Hyundai.
Speaker 3: Hey, this is Jesse Carmichael from Room five.
Speaker 4: Hi, this is Phil Margo of the Token.
Speaker 3: Hello.
Speaker 5: It's Nicole Atkins on the Rock and Roll History Show.
Speaker 6: Hey. Everyone, welcome back to the Rock and Roll History
Show on Hudson River Radio. I'm Brian Horowitz. If you're
here this week, that means you've made it through last
week's dark and depressing songs. So we're gonna do our
best to cheer you up with some optimistic and happy
tunes tonight. Let's see how it goes. As always, allow
me to introduce all the cranbones joining us here tonight,
First and foremost from the Richter Observatory. He was really
mad early here today. He went through the drive through,
ordered two large fries and he got like sixty small
ones instead. Neil Richter is here.
Speaker 4: I hate when that happens, right.
Speaker 1: And you want us to be optimistic after that?
Speaker 7: I know? Right?
Speaker 6: Well? We all need yeah good to have you back
from paranormally yours. She heard you should dress for the
job you want not the job you have, So she
dressed up as Batman. Dale Nukam is here.
Speaker 8: I can't believe I didn't get fired.
Speaker 6: Don't jump out the window. You're not qualified yet.
Speaker 8: Not only that, things get so aggravating at my job
that I have wanted to jump out the window, but
I'm only on the second floor, so I probably would
break an ankle or something.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and they'd bring you back in. They drop off
a laptop at the emergency room for you. Yeah. Yeah,
pretty much. And the host of the Silver Screen she
saw a panda walk into a bar, guzzle a beer,
eat a bunch of pretzels, then took out a pistol
and boom fires into the air. Then it takes off running.
The bartender goes out, hey, what are you doing. The
panda says, I'm a panda. Google me, So the bartender
google's panda, and sure enough it says pandas are black
white and eats, shoots and leaves. Mercedes kent.
Speaker 9: That was Did you know that it's National Beer Day?
Speaker 6: I did not. Yes, we're recording on Monday, so apparently
it's National Beer Day. I did not get the memory,
did not get the medal. I will have two on Friday.
Speaker 4: All right, Well, according to me a long time ago,
every day was beard day, and on Sunday you get
too nice good.
Speaker 6: It is written, have two.
Speaker 10: That's right, all right.
Speaker 6: Last, but the host of shaving cream. She wants to
know how noisy it would be if centipedes wore tiny
little flip flops. Barbara Ville was back.
Speaker 1: Actually, in my head, I know exactly how noisy.
Speaker 6: Yeah, people wearing two flip flops. That sound is annoying.
I can't imagine a hundred of them.
Speaker 1: And I could never be batman because I look horrible
on tight.
Speaker 6: I think, if you're going to be a successful batman,
you kind of don't want to be seen, and the
cage just seems so impractical.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be seen on a good day.
Speaker 8: Well, I want one of those little batman hats they
have for cats, because I keep seeing those all over
social media, and I just know Sebastian would look wonderful.
Speaker 1: You want a kitty cowl? Yes, kitty cowl?
Speaker 8: Okay, okay, I mean all right, I mean he played
a sheep in the church Christmas pageant last year?
Speaker 7: Why not?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 6: The master of disguise feeling this by next week. Sorry,
I have a feeling we're going to be seeing that
by next week. Okay, body, yeah, all right? So shall
we try to cheer everybody up this week and make
up for last year?
Speaker 10: Yes?
Speaker 6: All right. So the cheeriist person of this bunch is Barbara,
so she's going to lead us off this week. So
take it away.
Speaker 1: If you say, sophiarless leader. Here I go. All right.
My optimistic song choice is called Let's Have Another Cup
of Coffee. It was composed by Irving Berlin in nineteen
thirty two. Born May eleventh, eighteen eighty eight. He's the
recipient of a Grammy Tony An Academy Award, as well
as the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford.
He was known for composing numerous international hits. However, somebody's
gonna have to help me with the logistics of this,
because as a non musical person, I didn't quite get it. However,
for a large part of his career he could not
read sheet music, and playing piano, he had a custom
one built with a transposing lever where he needed to
play in keys other than F sharp. Did anybody want
a weigh in and tell me about that? I know
a few people I wish had that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, you could you instead. You know, if he's
playing in F sharp, he's probably just playing the black keys.
But you could have a mechanical transposition where it would
actually slide the whole mechanism inside the piano, so you'd
hit the same key on the piano, it would play
a different note, so we'd slide everything up and down.
Speaker 9: Don't you still have to read notes to do that
to know when the F sharp comes up?
Speaker 6: I'm guessing he learned at some point. Sounds like it.
He kind of had a little bit of success.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, he's known for such hit such hits like Alexander's
Ragtime Band, Blue Skies, also an optimistic song, Easter Parade
and White Christmas. Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee was
written in nineteen thirty two during the Depression, and featured
and was featured in the musical comedy Face the Music
in a scene that takes place in an automat. Anybody
know what that is?
Speaker 6: That's like the pre made food in a locker kind
of thing, right.
Speaker 4: I only went horn and hardart.
Speaker 8: I only went to one once. My brother grew up
in somewhere in the city. I forget where, and he
took me to one.
Speaker 6: Once I understand they were actually good, right, they actually
made everything.
Speaker 1: And they made they made. They had kitchens behind the
scenes where they.
Speaker 6: So it wasn't like a you know, you weren't opening
a microwave door and taking out your No.
Speaker 9: No, no, it wasn't like a vending machine.
Speaker 1: Right, No, it wasn't like a vending machine.
Speaker 6: Yeah, they filled that from behind.
Speaker 11: Right.
Speaker 6: I got a post office kind of thing door.
Speaker 4: And you know nickels, and I think, you know, you
dropped them and whatever it was you had Nichols, I think.
Speaker 6: Is see now we have to explain what nichols are.
Speaker 9: But wait, speaking of vending machines, you know what they
have in Japan that is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1: They have pretty much everything design her handbags and things
like that. The gotcha's right.
Speaker 9: They have Yeah, they have vending machines with corn soup
and it is amazing.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 8: They also have ones. They have ones with pizza in
it too, very all different, almost anything you can imagine
from what I understand.
Speaker 1: H Yeah, there's these girls that do these TikTok videos
on the vending machines in Japan, and I'm like addicted
to those.
Speaker 9: It was the soup that blew me away. Though my
host was like, no, you have to try this. It's
really good.
Speaker 1: Wow, awesome, Okay, all right. So in this musical comedy Face,
the music in the automat the song Let's have Another
cup of Coffee was performed by a group of people that,
according to the storyline, were previously financially comfortable, but have
now lost their fortunes and are hoping for better times.
So let's listen to this regnition made popular by Fred
Waring and his Pennsylvanians, and afterwards we'll talk more about that.
Speaker 12: Just around the corner, there's a rainbow in the sky,
so let's have another cup of coffee, and let's have
another piece of pie. Troubles like a bubble, and the
clouds will soon roll by, So let's have another cup
of coffee, and let's have another piece of pie. Let
us smile, be your umbrella, or it's just an abro shaller.
Even John d rock a fellow, is looking for the
silver lion, and mister Herbert Hoover says it now's the
time to buy. So let's have another cup of coffee,
and let's have another piece of pie.
Speaker 13: Around the corner and the rainbow in the sky. So
let's have another cup of coffee and let's.
Speaker 14: Have another pizza pie Ooble charge Babo on the Cloudmasoon
roll by.
Speaker 2: So let's have another cup of coffee and let's have
another pizza.
Speaker 14: Part Nasa filey your umbrella or.
Speaker 2: A just an Abel shower.
Speaker 13: Even John g Rock Upbella is looking for.
Speaker 15: The silver lighting.
Speaker 12: Mister Herbert Hoover, there's another time dubi.
Speaker 1: Hey. Fred Wearing born Frederick Malcolm Wearing Senior on June ninth,
nineteen hundred was an American bandleader, musician, and radio and
television personality. He was known as the man who taught
America to sing. Although his major at Penn State was
architectural engineering, he was rejected multiple times trying out for
the school glee club. However, he had formed a banjo
orchestra that became so successful he decided to quit school
and go on tour with the band.
Speaker 6: Ah, I thought you were going to say that they
led him into the glee club so they could disband.
Speaker 4: That'll teach him a lesson.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So the band became known as Fred Wearing
and his Pennsylvanians. They were popular recording artists from nineteen
twenty three to nineteen thirty two for Victor Records. They
went on to radio performances and the occasional musical Wearing
later added male vocalists and began to entertain troops during
World War Two. During the nineteen forties and fifties, he
returned to the studio and achieved much success in recording,
and he expanded to television and had his own show,
where he eventually added popular music to his repertoire. In
the nineteen thirties, he financed the first blender for public
use by inventor Frederick jacob Osius trying to type that
my autocorrect was not having it. A patent was granted
in nineteen thirty seven and was called the Miracle Mixer
and later the Wearing Blender. It was introduced to the
public at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago. The blunder
gained importance for its use in hospitals for patients with
certain dietary restrictions, and Jonas Salk used it in his
research for the polio vaccine. And it is for this
reason I have chosen this rendition of this song for
my optimistic song. If you're fortunate enough to have good fortune,
always try to make a beneficial contribution to society somehow,
because we should always use our powers for good and
spread the optimism for all of us.
Speaker 6: Nice. I'm into that. Yeah, I am absolutely down with
the advice of having another cup of coffee. Likewise, Yeah,
in fact, you know what, I'm gonna go get another
cup of coffee and we're gonna take a break. Thank you, Barbara.
We're gonna be back with more. So stick around. We'll
be right back.
Speaker 16: Hudson River Radio.
Speaker 6: Your dog likes us. This concludes the first part of
this cassette. Please turn the cassette over and begin again.
On side to.
Speaker 1: This is Hudson River Radio dot Com.
Speaker 6: Ah and welcome back, Batman. It's your turn.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I knew that was coming, Barbara.
Speaker 8: That's gonna be a tough act to follow. That's so
so cheerful. Mine's a positive.
Speaker 1: Song, but it's it's just kind of.
Speaker 8: Smooth in my opinion, it's not quite so bouncy as
your choice was your choice got everybody moving.
Speaker 1: I actually remembered it from my childhood, and that's really Yeah.
When we were given this topic. That's it came to mind.
Speaker 8: Because when you're younger than I am, how come I
don't remember that?
Speaker 1: Because I watched a lot of old movies.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, anyway, the song I chose is called Lucky
Man by The Verve. Now Lucky Man not to be
confused with the song by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, which
I really really liked that one too. That's definitely not
a positive song, doesn't well. No, And the Verve not
to be confused with a different band that I also like,
called the Verve Pipe right.
Speaker 6: Anyway.
Speaker 8: The Verve were an English rock band formed in Wigan,
which is a city. It sounds like a.
Speaker 6: Very funny name.
Speaker 8: Where do you come from?
Speaker 4: I come from Wigan.
Speaker 8: It's a city in Greater a town in Greater Manchester
in England. And the group was active. There must have
been some stuff going on, because the group was active
nineteen ninety through nineteen ninety five, nineteen ninety seven to
nineteen ninety nine, from two thousand and seven to two
thousand and nine. Obviously I don't know what was going on,
but I guess there was a lot of interesting stuff
going full.
Speaker 1: If that's going to be on the final I'm in
big trouble, I know, right.
Speaker 8: So the song I chose is from their third album,
which was their commercial breakthrough nineteen ninety seven albums, mostly
just before their second breakup. The album is called Urban
Hymns hym n S and it's one of the best
selling albums in UK history. The other singles from that
album are Bittersweet Sympathy, which I spoke about on this
show a long, long, long long time ago. But that's
I recommend Bittersweet Symphony as well. That actually kind of
sounds like it was made in the sixties, but it wasn't.
The second single was Drugs Don't Work, which I haven't
listened to.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I'll dispute that perhaps on another show.
Speaker 8: Depends on your metabolism, because like half the time, I
don't bother taking something for a headache because it's not
going to work anyway.
Speaker 9: I think we were talking about.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but that's that's the only that's.
Speaker 4: What happens after, you know, like.
Speaker 8: The next the only experience I have with medications. So
I'm kind of limited here, So let's have a listen. Oh.
The reason this is a positive song is because it
was written by the lead singer Richard Ashcroft, and I
think it's so sweet because it's about his relationship with
his wife. So let's have a listen and I'll tell
you a couple more things.
Speaker 17: After happeness, Marless, it's just a change me, something.
Speaker 18: In my liberty, my mind, happiness come in and I'm going.
Speaker 1: I want you to look with me and.
Speaker 13: Watch my babe going now just where I.
Speaker 7: For help me in the car and Stu, I have
to chill, help me in the child.
Speaker 14: I'm still after them all the love I has in
my mind.
Speaker 3: But I'm a lucky man.
Speaker 7: The fire my line.
Speaker 19: After there's something in my own face.
Speaker 1: I'm studying Nigga smiling.
Speaker 10: I'm leaning on the screens with you life.
Speaker 1: I've been this coming outdooring.
Speaker 7: I watch you do go and watch my beetle going.
Speaker 14: I know just who I I Then the gone.
Speaker 3: To stud who have the churn.
Speaker 11: I'm n to your house do after around all the.
Speaker 19: Love my albisit my mind. I'm whoop you under space.
I'm whoop you under space.
Speaker 14: No no, no go no, got a little go.
Speaker 13: Happen this r Less, it's sixty ten dire.
Speaker 19: It's something in my limit and there's gold and I'm
going I watch you live up and watch.
Speaker 3: My fable go ahead and lit.
Speaker 13: My left.
Speaker 1: It's just a change something in my legs.
Speaker 20: It's just a genuine thing and my labors, it's just
a genuineus sound in my.
Speaker 7: Band.
Speaker 8: Now, if that song doesn't give you a warm, fuzzy feeling,
I don't know what would Who on this entire planet,
possibly the universe, would not want a song like that
written about them, or sung to them, or just that
kind of thought expressed to them in some way. I
think that's just so beautiful and and very warm and fuzzy.
Speaker 9: I would take any song that was written about me.
Speaker 1: I know, right, I hear you, actually.
Speaker 9: Neil, we heard a song that was written about me.
Speaker 4: I was thinking, yeah, yeah, no, let's.
Speaker 1: Hmmm, you got some splaining to do?
Speaker 9: Yeah later, gal, Okay, No, it's fine. As a friend
of mine who's a musician, who oh, that's so nice.
So I dated in high school and oh wow, recently
wrote a song about me?
Speaker 8: Recently? Oh my goodness, Well I guess I guess he
hasn't forgotten you.
Speaker 6: Was it about getting another cup of coffee and a
piece of pie?
Speaker 9: It was not, but it was very flattering. Let's put
it that way.
Speaker 6: Aw, that's so nice.
Speaker 8: Oh my goodness, that's so sweet.
Speaker 9: Anyway, A Lucky Man.
Speaker 8: Was the Verb's second top twenty hit on the Billboard
Modern Rock Tracks chart in the US, climbington number sixteen.
In Canada, Lucky Man topped at number twenty five on
the RPM one hundred Hit Tracks chart. It also reached
the top forty in Finland, Iceland, Ireland, and New Zealand.
So that's not bad, right, Yeah, And.
Speaker 4: They didn't really, I don't think they. Maybe I'm wrong,
but they really didn't like make it big here and
no in the United States. No, it's interesting why they.
Speaker 8: Bittersweet Symphony got belated airplay here like years after came out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, that one I had heard, but again it
was more recently than Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean this one I only just recently heard
for the first time, even though it was done in
nineteen ninety seven. And yes, it's my usual driving to
or from work, and I heard it on the radio
and I liked it. So I thought this would make
a good choice for a positive song.
Speaker 6: And it was good one and pretty.
Speaker 4: You're talking to the connoisseur of the obscure here. So
I'm like, that is true. I give it two thumbs up. Yeah.
Speaker 8: Oh sometimes sometimes, Neil, I am in an unspoken competition
with you on finding some obscure things. But you have way, way,
way more musical knowledge than I do.
Speaker 4: Well, I wouldn't go that far, but well, let's find
out I don't. I don't even remember my own phone number,
but I can tell you, you know, the third bass
player from you know.
Speaker 6: But you never call yourself, so that makes sense, right, Well,
that's true too, all right, and if I did, If
I did, I wouldn't pick up.
Speaker 8: But I actually call myself. I have a landline hooked
up to a fax machine for work when I work
from home.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, I just had a flashback like it
was nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 8: Yes, and occasionally, but you know why I keep it
because occasionally I cannot find my cell phone, and I
call my cell phone from my fax machine so I
can find it.
Speaker 1: That's sad, isn't it. No?
Speaker 4: And we're all kind of sitting here nodding in agreement. Yeah,
I get that, you know.
Speaker 6: Yeah, all right, kindosieur, you you have the fluor.
Speaker 4: This was a tough one. I mean This was a
very tough topic to I mean, let's we live in
very we live in troubled times, so it's it's really
kind of hard to be optimistic.
Speaker 6: That's why we took the mission on to cheer people.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so I had to, you know, reach deep
inside myself for something really optimistic. So I came up
with the song Don't Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult. OK.
I like that the joke, folks, it's a joke. No,
it's a joke.
Speaker 9: Is it a happy song? Because we all shouldn't fear
death and just go forward and live a life.
Speaker 4: I couldn't think of anything more, you know, you know, depressing. Yeah, anyway, No,
this is the truth. My song of optimism for today
is called Dancing in My Mind and it was written, performed, produced,
and recorded by Ben Vaughan around twenty twenty two. I
didn't get the date exactly, wasn't available, but it was
released then on relay Shack Records. Now Ben Vaughan. He
was born and raised in a small New Jersey town
just on the other side of the border from Philadelphia.
Again sometime around nineteen fifty five, nothing specific here, fifty
five fifty six something like that. But when he was
sixty years old, his uncle gave him a record by
guitarist Dwayne Eddie, known as the King of Twang because
of his signature guitar tone on all this instrumental hit records,
and apparently that changed Vaughan's life forever, which is interesting
because most kids around that time would say that the
Beatles' arrival and in appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show
was the catalyst for their love of rock and roll
because Dwayne Eddies hits or pre Beatle. He was in
the early sixties and the Beatles were like sixty four
at least over here anyway. He started out playing drums
in a garage band when he was twelve, but switched
over to the guitar smart kid now after school he
would go down to the local department store to practice
borrowing air quotes the guitars that were up on the
rack and using their chord sheets to learn how to play,
which is actually not that uncommon, you know, going to
the music store and said, oh, I'd like to try
out your guitars here and sit there and you know,
play them for free. Fast forward, he formed the Ben
Vaughan Combo in nineteen eighty three, and the band released
two albums. For about five years, the band toured the
US several times. They received rave reviews in Rolling Stone
and People magazines, and got video airplay on MTV as well. Now,
in nineteen eighty eight, and this is about when I
first heard of him on college radio. At the time,
I think it was Wnyu out of New York. Nineteen
eighty eight, he began a solo career. He recorded several
critically acclaimed LPs, toured extensively in Europe and the US,
got even more MTV exposure, and was asked to produce
three albums for other artists by Elektra Records, which is
not too shabby. In nineteen ninety five, after moving to California,
a guest appearance on an LA Radidio show led to
him being hired as the composer for the hit TV
sitcom Third Rock from the Sun, and for the next
ten years, Vaughan would write music for many other TV
shows as well, including that seventy.
Speaker 6: Show Huh Cool.
Speaker 4: He also composed scores for several films around that time,
including that The Campy Psycho Beach Party, which is personal
favorite of mine, and continued working as a record producer.
Now I came upon this song Dancing my Mind fairly recently.
As I mentioned, it came out in twenty twenty two.
I heard it sometime last year, but twenty twenty two
that was right in the middle of the pandemic, the
lockdown and the isolation that we were all kind of
going through. Now, to me, the message is that even
though things may seem bleak and you feel all alone,
you can somehow reach inside yourself and find that happy
place if you will, for solace and possibly salvation while
waiting for better days to come.
Speaker 7: So let's do it.
Speaker 10: Let's dances.
Speaker 7: The dance sings again my mind. I come to five
pcson mine.
Speaker 3: Went on the dance season in my mind, I am
at twine to feel a fine.
Speaker 7: Went on the dance six again my mind.
Speaker 16: The world is because I haven't had an in by
time and went out on the dance sixing In my mind,
I see signs a bet amount of times when the dances.
Speaker 3: Friday night and the moon.
Speaker 7: Again cut out again. It was in my mind I
see city lights in air music in the.
Speaker 16: Okay Saturdays just an thirday till night time comes.
Speaker 7: It's goin try and high in the sky and.
Speaker 13: Dance sing lune.
Speaker 7: I come to the fin piece of mine, went on
and dance sing again my mind. I am at fly
a feeling mine.
Speaker 3: Went on a dance singing in l.
Speaker 7: There is no time, and what is behind?
Speaker 3: Went on the dances and.
Speaker 7: In loud, no need to to find your dad. Ride
was my.
Speaker 13: Dance, dance.
Speaker 3: As kind of dance singing in my mother.
Speaker 7: I come to his fine peace of mind. Went I'm
and dance singing in where I'm mind.
Speaker 3: I am at clom the feeling fine. When I'm dam
singing in my mind.
Speaker 7: The world is kind of and I'm in my prime.
Speaker 3: Went on dance singing in my mind.
Speaker 7: There is no time, and love is blind window and dance.
Speaker 3: Singing in my mind only.
Speaker 7: We think the less two minutes of dine.
Speaker 3: When I'm dance singing in my mind.
Speaker 7: Firstly saye gros merry.
Speaker 3: At the time. Yes, I'm dance singing in my mind,
dance singing in my mind.
Speaker 4: From the ridiculous to the sublime. Parsley sage Rosemary in
time now, how can you? That's like the best lyric
I've ever.
Speaker 6: It's like a head bopping mellow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's it's low key, but it's like, you
know what, you know, you just make yourself happy. You know,
had a very dreamy quality. It's kind of like a
cosmic roller rink.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, anyway, this is a great story, and in nineteen
ninety seven, Vaughan released an album that was recorded entirely
in his car in the driveway of his home. He
converted his car into a recording studio. He turned he
turned his nineteen sixty five Rambler into a makeshift recording studio.
Speaker 1: I'm doing life wrong. I'm so doing life wrong.
Speaker 8: It doesn't get much better than that.
Speaker 4: On the album, you know, you listed all the equipment
or the different microphones, et cetera. He also listed two
quarts of Quaker State oil. Love it, I love it
brilliant really right now. This album and the accompanying short film,
which I've not seen, is considered by many to be
a testament to a man and his dream. So you
got a dream, you gotta be optimistic now. Vaughan also
hosts his own syndicated radio show called The Many Moods
of Ben Vaughan, but in his spare time, he still
forms live across the US and Europe. So there you
have it, folks, let's dance be optimistic.
Speaker 8: Great, we should we should make a station trip to
go see him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, down, we could do that.
Speaker 4: Now that that that song is not I mean he's
I've heard other things and they are not exactly like
that song. It was kind of out of character, so
to speak. Huh, from the other things I've heard, and so, yeah,
he does have many moods. He's I think he's very cool.
Speaker 6: I would think, you know, writing for the seventies show,
like you said, it would be more upbeat regel. He's
sounding kind of yeah, like rock riff, heavy kind of things.
Speaker 4: Anybody comes up with the idea to make his sixty
five rambler into a recording studio.
Speaker 9: Anybody that writes music from for a third five from this?
Speaker 1: Oh god, I love the theme to that show so good.
That music was so cool.
Speaker 6: Yeah, definitely, all right, good one, Neil, thank you. So
we had the other cup of coffee on the first break,
and now.
Speaker 9: We're going to run to the bat.
Speaker 6: On the second break, and we'll be back with two
more happinesses. So stick around.
Speaker 21: Legend Riverradio dot com, Hudson Riverradio dot com.
Speaker 6: And We're back, Mercedes, share your happiness us bring it.
Speaker 9: I'm I'm very happy today and I'm so happy that
we're doing this topic good. I mean, I think we
all need this right now, Yes, especially after our topic
last week, which I am still recovering from.
Speaker 1: Sorry.
Speaker 9: Sorry, really great pics, but damn really dark.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 9: So, a musician friend of mine often post lists of
the top thirties hit from certain days, and I have
to thank him because as soon as I saw it,
I knew what song I was picking for the show. Incidentally,
the one he posted was from w k n R
Detroit from March thirty first, nineteen seventy, and the song
I picked was number twenty seven at that time. The
song is united We stand by the Brotherhood of Man.
Oh Wow, And just by the title and the name
of the group, it's pretty clear it's going to be optimistic.
The song was written by Tony Hiller and Peter Simons.
Peter Simons actually was involved in many musical endeavors and
used five different names during the sixties and seventies. He
used Johnny B. Great as a solo artist, John Goodison
his real name, as a member of Brother's Brotherhood of
Man Big John as a member of Big John's Rock
and Roll Circus and Peter Simons Simmons Simon's I'm Not
Sure as a songwriter. The song was released in nineteen
seventy with members Got Goodison, Tony Burrows, Roger Greenaway, Sue
Glover and Glover, I guess and Sonny Leslie. Tony Burrows,
who was unique and that he had three major hits
in three different bands in this same period of time.
Love Grows where my Rosemary goes. Oh, I remember tho Oh,
I love that song, Love that song, My baby loves Love?
And do you remember that one? Of course, okay and
united we stand making musical history. This song became the
band's first hit, peaking at number thirteen in the US.
It spent fifteen weeks on the charts and is ranked
as the sixty fourth biggest US hit of nineteen seventy,
which doesn't sound like a huge acclaim to me.
Speaker 6: Yeah, if you make your category narrow enough, everybody's a
record holder.
Speaker 9: Brotherhood of Man was a British pop quartet formed by
Tony Hiller in nineteen sixty nine. They had various members
until nineteen seventy two, when Hiller got together a trio
of session singers Martin Lee, Nikki Stevens, and Lee Sheridan
to form the band with completely new members in that
stock sort of Tony is quoted as saying, the inspiration
for the song was definitely in the title United We Stand.
It was during the time of Flower Power, the Vietnam War,
the founding of lots of movements, including gay liberation and
civil rights. It was in fact immediately taken up and
used by the as a rallying call for the US
Democratic Party presidential campaign. And no, I don't know which
one I should have looked it up. Over the years,
the United We Stand has been recorded by upwards of
one hundred and fifty artists worldwide. So you can see
that something that started out as a pure love song
went on to become an important anthem of our time
times and helped so many people to heal their pain
and suffering after the nine to eleven attacks. This is
the Brotherhood of Man's song, which I am most proud of.
I think that's really cool. So Regg Dwight aka wait
what Rege Dwight Yeah aka Elton John worked as an
office boy in Mills Music, where Tony Hiller worked, and
because Hiller knew Elton John could sing, he asked him
to record the demo, which I could not find me anywhere.
So let's take listening. Hopefully it will feel optimistic to you.
Speaker 5: There's nowhere in the world. Then I would weathery then
worthy you my love, and there's nothing in the world.
Speaker 1: And I would rather see than your smile out.
Speaker 22: Of you or you not aystad devid ever reform and
in my accent, not a restand devid a reform.
Speaker 10: In my.
Speaker 13: So gas.
Speaker 3: Lift the word around you, well the pad, then.
Speaker 13: I'll still be.
Speaker 1: Every stone gets too ball a long way.
Speaker 23: Just you call out men stand in every ball.
Speaker 24: And if my ma have a beer gets a lone
sadly ball, my action a beer gets along.
Speaker 9: Remain though, although it's about a couple who vowed to
stand together in the face of whatever challenges they encounter,
it wound up being It wound up taking on a
political tone. The opponents of the Vietnam War sometimes appropriated it.
After the attacks of the Twin Towers on September eleventh,
it made a big comeback as a national unity theme
in the United States. The song was also adapted as
an anthem by the Gay Liberation Front. When the group
performed this on the BBC music show Top of the Pops,
a pre famous Elton John appeared as a backing singer
Nice I think is great. After the Brady Budge TV
show did in nineteen seventy four, the fictional family got
their own Friday show in nineteen seventy six called The
Brady Bunch Hour, which lasted one season.
Speaker 4: Which may have been a little much wow, That's why
I missed it, I guess wow.
Speaker 9: But at the end of each episode they sang united
we stand. It's very cool, and the Muppets sang this
with guest star Lola Falana on Oh wown episode of
the Muppets. And I just want to add that. On
the Silver Screen podcast, we recently did a show on
optimistic movies and songs, and I'd just like to list
a couple of the songs that we did do.
Speaker 1: It was a great show.
Speaker 9: Thank You, Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles, Let's
Get Together by the Young Bloods I Can See Clearly
Now by Johnny Nash. We also did are You Having
Any Fun? By Elaine Stretch and Happy and Peppy. I'm
the couple of people.
Speaker 1: That was my favorite.
Speaker 9: So please feel free to listen to the silver Screen
on Hudson River Radio dot com or wherever for the
discussions and for the movies that came along with those excellent.
Speaker 6: All right, that's a good one.
Speaker 9: Oh my goodness, I had forgotten all about that song.
He posted that about four days ago and I went, boom, nice.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, it's funny you picked this one because I
had a whole other thing written up, different song, different
artists than what I'm doing. And then I was setting
up the playlist and I heard Mercedes song and I'm like, oh,
I remember this, and I'm like, this sounds familiar, like
in addition, is something other than the song. And I'm like,
all right, another song, Rip this off. This is really familiar.
And then I realized what it was, and it happened
to be another charitable, slash optimistic kind of song. I'm like, Okay,
So I was up late last night totally redoing everything,
and I took it in a different direction. And my
prior pick is in the archives for whenever that'll fit
into another topic that we do. So you guys all
remember we are the World nineteen eighty five. I don't
think we need to go too deep into that. The
organization that put that together is called USA for Africa,
which was United Support of Artists for Africa and not
United States of America, a little factory that nobody cares about.
Speaker 9: True, Yeah, did know that?
Speaker 24: No?
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. No.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 6: The event itself when they recorded We Are the World,
where you know, they got everybody together for that one night.
That was spearheaded by Ken Craigan. Craigan was an agent
and a manager to a whole bunch of a list celebrities,
and he also volunteered at a bunch of not for profits.
He did a ton to charity work. He passed away
in twenty twenty one at age eighty five.
Speaker 9: Seems like it was he it William Mars.
Speaker 6: I don't know, good question, I don't know. But from
everything that I was able to find about him, actually
seemed like even though he was in show business, he
was like a stand up kind of guy. From what
I could tell, I don't know where he worked. I
would imagine he bounced around to different places.
Speaker 9: And probably think he was there.
Speaker 6: Okay, all right, cool, okay, small world. So after the
incredibly huge success of We Are the World, which raised
money for hunger in Africa. He said that the next
logical step was to raise money for the hungry here
in the United States. So he organized an event called
Hands Across America. I don't know if you guys remember this, Yes,
all right, people across the country were supposed to line
up and hold hands, stretching from coast to coast before
COVID because now the ideas grow, so I'm not doing it.
On October twenty second, nineteen eighty five, they announced the
upcoming event at a press conference that featured Bill Cosby,
No problem there, Pete Rose, no real problem there, and
Kenny Rogers with his original face. Coca Cola was the
main sponsor of the event, and they kicked in around
eighteen point eight million dollars to cover the operation. Other
companies kicked in as well. The idea was that participants
were supposed to register and pay a ten dollars fee donation,
but of course, on the day of the event, a
lot of people just showed up and they hopped in
line and they didn't stop anybody from participating. Celebrities could
buy a mile for thirteen two hundred dollars because it
was estimated that it would take thirteen hundred and twenty
people to stretch out over a mile holding hands together.
Prince was supposedly the first one to pony up the
dough to buy a mile, so that's all to him.
The actual event took place on Sunday, May twenty fifth,
nineteen eighty five, the day before Memorial Day. There was
a nationwide simulcast on radio station starting at three pm Eastern,
where they played I Want to Hold Your Hand by
the Beatles. They played Dancing in the Street because everybody's
lined up on the street and this land is your land.
Has a little bit of patriotism there, And there was
a song written for the event as well, called Hands
Across America. It was sung by Joe Sarasano and I
hope I'm saying that right. He had success in some bands,
but he's actually best known for singing commercials TV commercials.
He sang for Coke, for ge, for Miller Beer. He
sang commercials for both army and navy recruitment, So if
you go back and check out some of those old commercials,
you'll recognize his voice. And second was also Sandra Farina,
who had a role in the Sergeant Pepper film. She
sings the female part in the song She Passed Away
in twenty twenty three. The music for the song was
played by the band Toto, who had done lots of
studio work from the seventies and eighties and all that,
so pretty big names. On the day of the event,
the radio stations played those three songs, and then everybody
sang we Are the World, because that's what you did
back then, and then they sang this song. The whole
event lasted a whopping fifteen minutes. It did not stretch
from coast to coast because for some reason, people didn't
want to drive out to the desert in the middle
of nowhere and stand out in the blazing sun holding
hands with the strangers and pay ten bucks to do it.
So they kind of filled it in with like paper
chains and other things to try to kind of fill
the gaps there.
Speaker 9: You were going to say, cutouts of people.
Speaker 6: Maybe they did.
Speaker 24: That.
Speaker 6: Just seems like a lot of work for a fifteen
minute of ev you know. Yeah. So in the end,
they raised about fifteen million dollars to fight hunger here
in the US, which was distributed to local charities to
help feed the hungry. Now they raised fifteen million. Do
you remember the figure that Coca Cola kicked.
Speaker 4: In I was gonna say, yes, Coca Cola.
Speaker 6: Kicked in eighteen point eight million dollars. Yeah, so they
would have been better off if Coke just donated money
straight and nobody helped me.
Speaker 4: Hands that was going through him as I'm not going
to say anything to you.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 6: No, they did not raise as much money as they
had hoped too. People just kind of showed up and
held hands without kicking in their ten.
Speaker 9: Bucks, so without doing any good. Yeah, exactly, you got
to held hands with your neighbor, I guess.
Speaker 6: And how many people got sick from that?
Speaker 3: Who knows?
Speaker 6: It's crazy.
Speaker 8: So terms were different back then.
Speaker 6: Sure were the old days, the olden day germs.
Speaker 4: It wasn't that long.
Speaker 9: Ago, really, communities.
Speaker 6: All right, well if uh yeah, I don't know. You
know what, there was such widespread antibiotic use that now
you have the back to you know, the antibiotic resistant everything.
So it's we're probably worse off than we were back then.
Who knows, I don't know. So this song was released
as a single. It peaked at number sixty five, which
really isn't bad. So it's I don't know. I was
an eighties kid. I was eleven ish when this came out.
You know, I listened to it again. The first time
you hear it, it's like cheesy eighties. The second time
it's like you pay attention to the lyrics and you're
like all right, And the third time you're like, okay,
this is kind of you know, maybe legit. I don't know.
Speaker 9: Are you're going to play it three times?
Speaker 6: For I will not play it three times. It's up
to you to back up the show and play it
three times.
Speaker 8: But much rejoicing.
Speaker 6: But you are going to hear pops and crackles on
this because this is the original forty five that I
bought when I was eleven. Good, Oh, we're going back
to the original source God a relic, Yes me or
the record got a museum piece and across America by USA.
Speaker 4: For Africa.
Speaker 11: Spelled the keys dreams smells so sweet, it's.
Speaker 7: Crerd So.
Speaker 13: That man over there, he's my brother.
Speaker 14: When you hear last time, when you hear cries, when
he needs me, I'll be right there back.
Speaker 3: Sound the pass.
Speaker 15: Deeps on, said the father and father doesn't Father's.
Speaker 3: Unsaid sons John isn't son.
Speaker 13: With being.
Speaker 3: Together as one?
Speaker 13: And I can't we'll bacon can it again? A stranger
people saying as a bland.
Speaker 7: So people start to love peach O.
Speaker 13: See those people over there and my sister randfather when
they laugh and when they crap, and when they need
me and tell me what the sis we are?
Speaker 10: The river.
Speaker 13: Can rise to the.
Speaker 3: Valley of.
Speaker 14: Lady who signed signs all say welcome. We must not
tasso see that man o man, he's my brother.
Speaker 13: But when he froms when he needs me not be away. Listen.
Speaker 6: So I think you can hear the similarities with Mercedes
sung in this one, which that's why I'm surprised I
remember this.
Speaker 9: So yeah, we all forgot about that, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, not only the vibe, but it does have the
same feel to it, you know, the united the yeah,
the big chorus, the big you know.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So millions millions of people singing together holding hands.
Speaker 6: That's why I popped into my head and I went,
I have this in the basement and I have to.
Speaker 9: Go on the record.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you're sitting there with an actual turntable and
you spun that record.
Speaker 6: There's a turntable of it. Well, if you want to
pull the curtain back, Barbara, I digitized it before the show,
but yes, I have the actual record.
Speaker 1: Oh I was hoping you just say yes.
Speaker 6: But okay, I can go. If you want me to pause,
I'll go to the basement dig it back out again.
But it's okay, all right, So there you go. You
guys were talking about something else.
Speaker 4: Related to this that I didn't know about it anytime,
and Across your Face.
Speaker 9: Which was a Ramones's shirt that I got at the
time because I was working at Sire and I think
it came out right after. I think they distributed the shirt.
I don't know if they sold it to people.
Speaker 4: That was it. I just remember it, you know, I
don't remember why or what they did with it, but
that was their That was their sarcastic or whatever response
to Hands across America. They said, hands across your Face
and it was a T shirt and I think there's
a photo of Johnny Ramone wearing it, you know, while
they were playing. But it, you know, it didn't get
as much traction as Hands Across America.
Speaker 9: But no, but it's hilarious.
Speaker 4: But I thought it was. Yeah, I appreciated the their
brand of humor.
Speaker 9: Yeah, absolutely absolutely that they were. The T shirt is
a face with people across the face.
Speaker 1: Holding hands, holding hands, holding hands.
Speaker 6: That's great, all right, So is everybody cheered up compared
to last week? A happy note?
Speaker 4: Oh yes, all right?
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 6: Then that means it's time to pull the plug before
something goes wrong.
Speaker 4: We don't want to get too happy.
Speaker 6: I know, we don't want to overdo it. So excellent
choice is crambones. Thank you for being here tonight, and
thank you all for joining us here for the Rock
and Roll History Show. Don't forget to subscribe in your
favorite podcast app and check out all the other shows
that we do at Hudson River Radio. There is something
for everybody. I don't know what we're doing next week,
but we're going to do something in between happy and sad,
somewhere on that spectrum. We'll figure it out as we
go along. Till then, have a great weekend. We'll see
you next week. Everybody, Peace out, A rock cop bottomed cram.
Speaker 8: Okay, bye bye.
Speaker 2: Hudson River Radio dot com a subsidiary of Glacier Entertainment LLC,
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